


At the beginning of tomorrow

by Starrie_Wolf



Series: Fic Exchanges [Starrie Wolf] [19]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Backstory, Character Study, Collection: Purimgifts Day 1, Gen, Headcanon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-26
Updated: 2016-03-26
Packaged: 2018-05-27 16:38:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6292057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starrie_Wolf/pseuds/Starrie_Wolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Contrary to popular belief, the Battle of Endor wasn’t the be all and end all of things. Both the Emperor and Darth Vader might have been dead, but the galaxy was a vast place, and the Empire’s stranglehold on its territories not as easily broken as that.</p><p>Especially not in the Core worlds, where Kaydel Ko Connix was born.</p>
            </blockquote>





	At the beginning of tomorrow

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fenellaevangela](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fenellaevangela/gifts).



Contrary to popular belief, the Battle of Endor wasn’t the be all and end all of things. Both the Emperor and Darth Vader might have been dead, but the galaxy was a vast place, and the Empire’s stranglehold on its territories not as easily broken as that.

Especially not in the Core Worlds, where Kaydel Ko Connix was born.

She’d been lucky in one respect; it wasn’t Coruscant, the home base of the Imperial Army. She’d heard that _that_ was far worse than anything she’d experienced, anything she could possibly imagine: tens of thousands of soldiers, a good proportion of them either drunk on their delusions of authority or traumatised by the realities of war, let loose upon the civilian population during their off duty hours. At least Kaydel only ever had to put up with the occasional stormtrooper patrol cutting through the town square, jeering at the girls that hurried past with their heads down.

Then the blockades were finally broken, the dredges of the Empire chased into the shadows of the galaxy, and that was the first time she saw her parents cry in sheer relief.

Years later, she wouldn’t be able to recall exactly why she’d been poking through old Galactic Senate recordings – perhaps it had been her history research assignment, and even though it had nothing to do with her schoolwork, she really wanted to know who this ‘Leia Organa’ so many tabloids of the era had mentioned was.

Kaydel lost track of how many hours she’d spent watching holovid after holovid, watching Senator Organa’s pod rise to take the floor time and again like a phoenix unfurling her wings. The images were blurry, as recordings from an age past so often were, but the young woman they featured was unmistakeable in her garb of pure white, her clear voice slicing through her opponents’ arguments like a diamond through murky panes of glass.

Her peers didn’t so much as give her a second glance when she started pinning her blonde hair up in two buns, but occasionally the elderly passing her by in the streets would do double-takes.

Time passed.

Her friends never quite understood why she still kept up with the Galactic Senate sessions, even in university. “But you’re specialising in _communications_!” they’d argue. “What’s the point of watching politicians argue it out when it’ll never affect you anyway?”

She was in her final year of university when Senator Organa brought up a looming new threat by the name of the First Order during a Senate session. She hadn’t even really been paying attention, too busy juggling some revision material for her finals but too unwilling to miss the latest Senate session, until it suddenly clicked in her mind that she’d been hearing Senator Organa’s voice on and off for a good part of three hours. No one _ever_ spoke up that often during a Senate session.

Kaydel put down her datapads, rewound the holovid, and started watching from the beginning.

By the end of her second rewatch, she knew what she wanted to do after graduation.

Now came the hard part: how exactly does one apply to join a secret resistance? It wasn’t like she could fill out an application form on the HoloNet. And the only person whom she knew was in this Resistance was a high-profile politician who had no idea she even existed. A comm message would never work; the senator probably received tens of thousands of messages a day, and Kaydel had no idea how to phrase her message in such a way that it would get past the security screenings and actually reach the intended recipient – not to mention, it would be terribly insecure.

Taking a chance, Kaydel bought a one-way ticket to Hosnian Prime.

It was surprisingly easy to be granted an audience with a senator – Leia Organa, apparently, believed in hearing the people’s voices, and tried to hold weekly walk-in sessions whenever she was on-world.

She had to spend the night sleeping outside the building housing Senator Organa’s office, but it was well worth it to be the fourth in line.

“I understand that you may have a job opening for a communications specialist,” Kaydel said, placing her resumé on the table.

Senator Organa glanced down at the _summa cum laude_ stamped on the graduation certificate, and then her gaze flickered up to Kaydel’s face.

“Interesting choice of hairstyle.”

Kaydel refused to blush. She _refused_. “Thank you.” And then, because it felt important to say so, to _her_ of all people – “I’ve been wearing them like this since I was fifteen.”

The papers for her appointment as a mission controller came the next day.

**Author's Note:**

> With thanks to Wookieepedia.
> 
> I... _think_ the graphic doesn't need to be related to the fic? At least I hope so, or this would be very awkward. Here's a nice beni-hime (Japanese maple) for you.
> 
> [Tumblr~~~](starriewolf.tumblr.com)


End file.
